1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to the management of computer memory operations using memory page associations and factors to enable faster access to memory pages during processing operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer systems are designed with memory and storage devices that have different access times or latencies. The access time to access a page of data from a typical dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device is on the order of 60 nanoseconds. In contrast, the access time to access a page of data from a typical hard drive or disk storage device is on the order of 4 milliseconds or 4,000,000 nanoseconds. Computer processors typically operate at very high speeds and are capable of processing data at such a fast rate that it is necessary to pre-fetch a sufficient number of memory pages from the hard drive storage device and store the memory pages to system DRAM in order to avoid the processor being idle for long periods of time. Pre-fetching of memory pages ensures that the data is ready and available for utilization by the processor when needed. Determining which memory pages should be pre-fetched is important for processor performance. If the required memory page is stored in system DRAM, processor operations can be quickly completed. However, if the required memory page is not stored in system DRAM, processor operations can stall as the processor waits for the memory page to be retrieved from the hard drive storage device.